By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — All the excitement, posturing and boisterous noise in the crowd would lead one to believe that McAllen Rowe and Sharyland High had plenty at stake when they played Tuesday.
They did not.
What was supposed to be another run-of-the-mill non-district opener turned into an exciting basketball game, with Rowe rallying with 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter and Sharyland High taking the lead back in time to record a 69-64 win at home.
“This was a pretty intense atmosphere tonight,” Rattlers coach David Keith said. “I was impressed for the first game of the season.”
Sharyland (1-0) led through three quarters before Maury Campos drilled a 3-pointer to tie it at 53 with 6:09 left in regulation. Moments later, Kaleb Garza hit another from long distance as Rowe took a 56-55 advantage.
It ignited a 12-3 run in which the Warriors buried four 3s, with Campos and Daniel Sotuyo giving Rowe a 62-56 edge.
“That’s who we are,” Warriors coach Jose Luis Yebra said. “We got some shooters, we got quickness. That’s the way we got to play. We don’t have any height. Our style is ‘let’s run and let’s play some ball.’ I hope everybody’s in shape when we play.”
Rowe’s shooting certainly helped make up for its size against one of the taller teams in the Valley in Sharyland.
Jose De La Garza, a 6-foot-7 wing, poured in a game-high 27 points. Patrick de la Torre, a 6-foot-5 post, added 17 points.
The two bigs, playing with four fouls apiece in the fourth quarter, complemented each other Tuesday. De la Torre got his points underneath and around the basket. De La Garza, a left-hander, hit mid-range jumpers and scooped in layups.
But it was Andres Cantu, the team’s starting point guard, who came up big down the stretch, coming away with two of the team’s five fourth-quarter steals. He found De La Garza on an out-of-bounds alley-oop play to make it 64-60. The next time down, he spotted De La Garza again for a floater.
On the ensuing possession, Cantu drove down the lane before dishing it to de la Torre, who banked in a shot and drew the foul, cutting it to 64-62 with 2:15 left.
The Rattlers ultimately went ahead 66-64 with a minute left after Cantu nailed a pair of free throws, scoring five of his nine points in the final period.
“I was not expecting that (type of emotion in the first game),” Cantu said. “I don’t think any of us were because they lost a lot of players. We thought they were regrouping like us. But they played a hell of a game.”
Rowe (0-1) finished the game hitting eight 3s, including four from Campos, who had a team-high 17 points.
Sotuyo (15 points) and Bryan Ibarra (13) were the other double-digit scores, sinking two 3s apiece.
“To be able to practice against a hard-nosed team like Rowe that’s very well-coached, they shot lights-out. If we can rep that every single day, we’re going to get better,” Keith said. “The defensive pressure they provided for us, they did an excellent job. If anything, we know we have to step up our game if we want to be successful.”